HardlyNever
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Everything posted by HardlyNever
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I'd say defending a multi-million dollar international company is kind of a shame, as well. All for the sake of "muh free market." Bandai is a big boy, they can take it (not like they read this, anyhow). Also, many of us (myself included) pre-ordered these without really knowing exactly what we were getting, because that's how Bandai is. You have to order these things at first announcement, or risk missing out entirely (or paying extreme mark-ups). If they gave us more information at the time of reveal, then we'd be able to make more informed decisions, but they typically do not do that, especially for accessory products like this. As time went and on we got more pictures of displays, it was becoming clear that this set didn't have all the gimmicks some of us were expecting. And I feel like this is a perfect place to voice that disappointment, as I know several other members were wondering what exactly we were getting, as well. I'll still enjoy getting the SS parts, I just wish we knew what we were buying before hand. And I don't see the reason for them to giving us less while charging more. But I guess they keep getting away with it, so they keep at it.
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Do the missile booms themselves have any kind of internal detail? I'm guessing no? The lack of internal detail at this price and this scale is pretty disappointing. Not that I really used it much on the yamcadia's, it was still nice to know it was there and I did use it for hangar-style displays every once in a while. We really shouldn't be moving backward at this price point. Shame on Bandai.
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I got the 1J and 1S for just under $200 shipped, but I pre-ordered. I think the 1A Max is still in a "reasonable" price range. I didn't pre-order the Max, and I paid like $220 shipped with 3 day shipping. I feel like these DX vf-1s are worth that, personally. If you're just looking to buy in to the line, the Max 1A is definitely the way to go. If you must have one the Hikaru valks you're going to be paying a mark-up at this point. You could be patient and watch Mandarake for one that is gently used with some minor box damage, though.
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I think the Arad version of the 31A is also a missed opportunity. Based on current market prices on the CF version, any kind of 31A/Kairos should do pretty well (I know I would buy it). Maybe they are just waiting for the next movie, like you said. We could be getting different variants there. But the only thing that I've seen teased is a completely different design (not a VF-31).
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Got around to transforming the 1S. Luckily, nothing fell off, or any other QC issues. But Hikaru did get jealous of Senpai's strike parts: Sorry Hikaru-chan, you'll have to wait until Christmas...
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I believe you are correct. It looks like two halves that you'll have to assemble to make a single fighter mode adapter. Hope it doesn't result in some kind of stability issue.
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Whelp, now I'm going to transform mine tonight. I hope nothing falls off. Sorry that happened. HLJ is probably one of the best when it comes to customer service. They might be able to help you out, or at least give you some store credit or something.
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Yeah, I really don't care either way. If they want to claim it makes Battroid look better to them... whatever. I'm not defending Bandai, I just don't care enough about such a minor detail to be mad about it. If they want to "fix" it in later releases, I wouldn't mind. Also Bandai right now:
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To be fair to Bandai, I don't believe you ever see the modex number on the rear stabilizer in the animation, at least not for the Hikaru VF-1S. So they can kind of do what they want. You could argue they should know better based on real aircraft, but we've seen time and again that Bandai doesn't really care about what real aircraft do when it comes to their valks. It will be interesting to see how they handle those numbers on future releases. They'll probably stick to their guns, now.
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I feel like I'm approaching this myself. The Hikaru 1S has maxed out my current display space, barring some serious cramming. I plan on getting one more larger display sometime next year (I have the empty space for it right next to my current detolfs), and probably calling it after that. The strike packs are also my only pre-order currently open I realized today that I spend less and less every year, as my list of wants shrinks. If it weren't for this DX VF-1 line, I might be down to like 1-2 purchases per year (I only buy basically Macross stuff and the odd Gunpla). Which isn't a bad thing; I'm just realizing my collection is getting closer to where I want it. I'm still interested in a few more DX VF-1s, and I'll definitely get the DX yf-21 if/when it is released. I still have my eye on HMR stuff, but that line has slowed down, and I'm not interested in their VF-4 repaints. Then there is a few Arcadia releases I could be interested in, but they've put me off buying their stuff lately.
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My landing gear bay doors were stiff, but not overly so. I would say the rear landing gear doors were harder to open than the front ones, on my copy. I didn't need to do anything special on any of them, though.
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Got a chance to open mine today. Haven't transformed it yet, but so far it is as solid as the Max 1A release, maybe even better in terms of production quality (at least on my copy). There is one exception: I noticed that the HUD/console isn't glued in or anything. Mine just slide right out when I took the pilot out. It seems liked it should be glued or something, but maybe not? Either way, a very minor gripe; it stays put when doing anything other than removing the pilot. And a spot of glue would solve the problem very easily (I probably won't even bother). Anyone else have this issue with the console? Is it even a "problem," or is it supposed to be that way? I checked my TV valks, and the console stays put for them.
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Can't know for sure, but it sounds like you got a QC reject to me. We always wonder where NY gets its extra stock, and maybe QC rejects are a part of that pool. You can always contact NY and see what they say. It might be well past the time where they would offer any kind of refund, and they aren't known for their customer service to begin with. But it couldn't hurt to ask (nicely). You might have a fighter mode/replacement part valk, though. Did you pay a mark-up for it? Or was it discounted?
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I won't pretend to know the inner workings of Bandai's release schedule, but DYRL Hikaru, Max, and Kakizaki (VF-1A variants) were teased at the last tamashii nations. I figure one of them has to be next, right? I don't think it will be all 3 in a row, but maybe DYRL Kakizaki next? I'm just saying Roy (of any flavor) and TV Kakizaki aren't super likely to be next, imo. Anything could happen, of course.
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I've been considering whether or not I should open mine based on this question. To answer your question directly: I think Mandarake will probably have something cheaper than that in the next few months, if you're ok with gently used, and maybe taking a minor hit on box condition. So you might want to hold out for that, if you're ok waiting a while. Remember, you're going to have to pay a proxy fee of some sort going through YJA (unless you have a friend or something in Japan). But then there is this whole situation with the messed up tampo on the rear stabilizer. Personally, it barely bothers me, but it could maybe, possibly (but probably not) open the door for Bandai to do some kind of reissue, with the correct tampo printing. If that does happen (again, unlikely), then another release could bring the price down further. It could also make the "error" version more valuable. But I think that scenario is unlikely.
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Also got shipping notice from HLJ. Seems like they are delivering on every 1S order they made on PO night. I might not even open it until the Strike parts arrive. We'll see how long NY takes on those.
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FedEX was cheaper than EMS for me, so I went with that. FedEX was faster, too.
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Looks like HLJ has fixed their private warehouse issue, for those that have orders with them. I was able to complete my shipping on the order. The slowest shipping option was also the most expensive so... I should be seeing it in a week or so (depending on what Thanksgiving does to shipping locally).
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Also got the notice from HLJ. But their website is crapping out (surprise), and I can't view my private warehouse at the moment. I'll keep trying.
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That VF-1J Armored really caught my eye. That's a good price; I almost grabbed it, even though I have one sitting on my shelf already. Back on topic, I still haven't heard anything from HLJ regarding my DX 1/48 Hikaru 1S. The order still shows up, and I know it's technically not the release date yet, so I'm not too worried. I know HLJ is not the fastest to release product, out of the big retailers, either. But.. ya know... I want my toy
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No, you can't. The gunpod is one of the most disappointing things in this otherwise pretty great package, imo. You can kinda-sorta simulate storing the gun behind the shield by putting the gunpod on that arm slot. But it only looks ok-ish at certain angles.
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This is kind of my point. If someone is going to act in bad faith, they aren't going to care about rules. And they are going to play "nice" until they get what they really want. This is will net only the most marginal "advantage," unless you're using a really slow internet connection. Disabling images is pretty trivial to do in most browsers; I don't even bother to do it because my internet connection is pretty good. Loading the images doesn't take much time, compared to human reaction speed, in most situations. However when servers are bogged down, it might help a little bit. Doing it in Chrome is very easy. Doing it Firefox is also pretty simple. You can also load a page in HTML only (all the styling stripped out), and improve your load time speed. I do none of these things during pre-order madness, because page load speed generally isn't the true bottle-neck. Others are welcome to give it a shot, of course. I understand the frustration of the situation, but personally, I don't think us botting is going to solve much of anything. The only reason I'm considering developing one personally, is so that I don't have to get up at 3AM (my time) to do this crap manually. That's my real incentive there. I don't think it would improve my odds of success that much. But I'm not trying to derail this effort, per se. Just giving my two cents. In my opinion, if we were going to act collectively in some fashion, trying to change the behavior of one or more of the big retailers would be our best bet. We have some people here that drop some pretty serious cash at some of these vendors. Collectively, we might represent enough buying power to influence something like AmiAmi, HLJ, etc. to change their pre-order practice, at least when it comes to Bandai DX Macross products. But that would require us acting collectively, not individually (and selfishly) to get preferential treatment for ourselves.
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I've already weighed in on this is situation in other threads, so I won't repeat myself here. As a web developer, there does seem to be some misinformation floating around about what a bot can/does and doesn't do, but (again) I've already commented on that; if you want to dig through my comment history feel free. All I'll add is: 1. There is no one bot that will work on all the major sites (as they have bot-resistant architecture). So you'll have to either pick a bot for a specific site, or make a bot that targets the weaker, less bot-resistant sites. Whoever you find to do this needs to be aware of that going into it. And if they are decent, they should be able to recognize that pretty early on. 2. Be careful with who you are dealing with, and don't get your hopes up too high. Putting in $5-10 for having at chance at a bot that will have a chance at increasing your pre-order success is one thing, if you're ok with understanding that you are throwing money at a gamble. And you're ok with the possibility of having 0 ROI on that gamble. Having a group of internet strangers pool money together to give to yet another internet stranger, hoping that everyone will act in good faith, seems pretty naive to me. And some of the comments in this thread and about this topic general kind give me kind of a "I'm new at internet" vibe. But that's me. If you do get a functioning bot that does work on one of the major sites, there is nothing stopping just one person out of the many who have the bot from becoming the next big scalper. Yes, the sites have customer limits, but of course there are ways to circumvent those, if you are willing. With great power comes great responsibility, or something like that . So good luck, I hope it works out the way you all are hoping. Just be careful and manage your expectations accordingly.
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I'd still buy it. I think Bandai is prioritizing battroid mode with this particular design. I think the Yamato's feet and legs are ridiculously tiny, so I'd be happy to see Bandai improve that, and it looks like they have. The line-art and what we see in animation for the yf-21 are impossible to create in a 3D (near) perfect transformation toy, and we just have to accept that. I'm not saying Bandai can't do better than what we are seeing right now, but compromises will be made, usually at the cost of a specific mode. This is true (to some degree or another) of all the pre-CAD valks. I do think that they intakes are a bit too far forward in fighter mode, even when accounting for anime magic, so I'd like them to try to push them back a little bit, even if they can't get it line-art accurate. But I think what we're seeing now is not far off from what we'll end up getting, otherwise they wouldn't have revealed it.
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At this point, I'd contact the individual retailer before making a purchase. We can't really know the state of every item at every retailer.
